Mexico escape is latest chapter in a long story

The tabloid-style headline writers in Mexico have deemed them megafugas, megaescapes, and in the past two years, 13 massive prison breaks have occurred, mostly in the country's troubled north.

In the latest megafuga, about 130 people slipped under the walls Monday of a prison across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass in an escape likely orchestrated by the Zetas drug cartel to replenish its ranks, experts said.

Officials said at least 86 of those who escaped in the tunnel were being held on federal charges, which usually means drug trafficking.

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Three of the inmates were found hiding Tuesday in a prison visiting area and didn't make it out.

The massive escape didn't top the record of more than 150 prisoners who broke out of a facility in Nuevo Laredo in 2010. Officials at the time said it was organized by Zetas, who loaded the prisoners into a convoy of vehicles as they walked out of a maintenance door.

Officials are offering a $16,000 reward for information leading to the capture of each of the fugitives, but megafuga escapees rarely are caught.

Echoing his reaction to the Nuevo Laredo prison break, Mexican President Felipe Calderón criticized state officials for the escape.

Calderón, who leaves office in 10 weeks and has made the reform and improvement of state police systems a pillar of his struggling six-year campaign against organized crime, called the Coahuila prison break “deplorable” in a Twitter posting.

But while officials in the state of Tamaulipas, where Nuevo Laredo is located, had blamed Calderón and his cartel war for the escape in 2010, officials in the nearby state of Coahuila seemed caught off guard.

The prison, about two miles from the Rio Grande outside the city of Piedras Negras, was built to hold 1,000, but housed only 735 before the escape.

The tunnel “was not made today. It had been there for months,” Coahuila Attorney General Homero Ramos told the Milenio TV station. “The prison was not overcrowded, none of our prisons are. We have 132 inmates escaping through a tunnel, and it doesn't make sense.”

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Lawless lockups

July 2010: Federal prosecutors announce the warden of a prison in the northern state of Durango gave guns to prisoners, allow them to leave at night, assassinate rivals and return in the morning

Sept. 10, 2010: 85 inmates escape from a jail in the border city of Reynosa

Dec. 16, 2010: More than 150 escape from a prison in Nuevo Laredo

March 14, 2011: The new director of Nuevo Laredo's prison is stabbed to death inside the facility

July 15, 2011: Another 60 prisoners escape from the Nuevo Laredo prison, leaving seven rivals dead in their wake

July 25, 2011: Armed men storm a prison in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, killing 17 including two U.S. citizens

In recent years, Mexican prisons have been the scenes of brutal assassinations and their gates have been revolving doors for cartel killers.

“How do prison authorities not determine that the prisoners are building a 21-foot tunnel from a carpentry shop?” asked Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“So it appears that there's collusion on the part of the prison authorities. It's impossible to be building a tunnel in a carpentry shop and not have some prison guards or some oversight in that area,” he said. “Why? Because the carpentry shop is probably one of the most (watched) areas in any prison. Why? Because they have tools there that can be turned into weapons.”

Vigil said the Zetas, facing a military offensive and internal dissent, were likely trying to free incarcerated members who can join their forces in Mexico, although there is some concern they might head for the U.S.

In recent weeks, the Mexican military has pressed the Zetas in the Piedras Negras area, arresting a man they said was the regional commander, or plaza boss, on Sept. 7.

In Eagle Pass, police chief Tony Castañeda said his officers are being extra vigilant in areas along the river and in downtown.

“We're sending out messages to the community to report any suspicious activity,” Castañeda said. “Our officers are operating on full alert, which means they're more sensitive, more attentive. They're not out there writing tickets.”

“At this point, CBP has no reports of escapees attempting to cross the border,” said Dennis Smith, a CBP spokesman. “We will continue coordinating with our Mexican counterparts as we monitor this situation."

Washington-based intelligence and security consulting firm Grupo Savant said the most likely form of spillover crime resulting from the prison break might be auto thefts.

“Prison breakouts in Mexico adjacent to Texas have the secondary effect of causing an increased threat to U.S. Citizens who live on the Texas-Mexico border,” a Grupo Savant analysis says. “Threats from this activity emanate from car jackings in Mexico and car thefts in Texas, the number and frequency of which usually increase in the days and weeks following the escapes as the criminal organizations seek to equip the escapees, turned war-fighters, with vehicles and other equipment.”